1. Field of Technology
This disclosure generally relates to the field of transparent conductors and, more particularly, to systems, devices, and methods for manufacturing transparent conductors.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term “transparent conductors” typically refers to thin conductive films coated on high-transmittance surfaces or substrates. Transparent conductors may be manufactured to have surface conductivity while maintaining reasonable optical transparency. Such surface conducting transparent conductors are widely used as, for example, transparent electrodes in flat liquid crystal displays, touch panels, electroluminescent devices, and thin-film photovoltaic cells, as well as anti-static layers and electromagnetic wave shielding layers.
Currently, vacuum deposited metal oxides, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), are the industry standard materials to provide optically transparent electrical conductivity to dielectric surfaces such as glass and polymeric films. The metal oxide films, however, are fragile and prone to damage during bending or other physical stresses. They also require elevated deposition temperatures and/or high annealing temperatures to achieve high conductivity levels. There also may be issues with the adhesion of metal oxide films to substrates that are prone to adsorbing moisture such as plastic and organic substrates (e.g. polycarbonates, and the like). Applications of metal oxide films on flexible substrates are therefore severely limited. In addition, vacuum deposition is a costly process and requires specialized equipment. Moreover, the process of vacuum deposition is not conducive to forming patterns and circuits. This typically results in the need for expensive patterning processes such as photolithography.
Conductive polymers have also been used in the manufacture of optically transparent electrical conductors. The polymers, however, generally have lower conductivity values, exhibit higher optical absorption (particularly at visible wavelengths) compared to the metal oxide films, and suffer from lack of chemical and long-term stability.
Commercial acceptance of transparent conductors is dependent on a variety of factors, such as cost to manufacture, versatility, reliability, and ease of design and manufacture. For example, it may be desirable to have novel approaches for manufacturing transparent conductors possessing desirable electrical, optical, and mechanical properties. Accordingly, there remains a need in the art to provide transparent conductors having desirable electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, in particular transparent conductors that are adaptable to any substrates, and can be manufactured and patterned in a low-cost, reliable high-throughput process.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the shortcomings set forth above, and providing further related advantages.